Metro’s top brass is conducting a “formal review” of two police officers’ actions after a video surfaced of a man in a wheelchair injuring his head in a skirmish as the officers arrested him. The incident stemmed from the man allegedly drinking alcohol in public. Metro has been saying he was injured when he fell from his wheelchair while resisting arrest. But the video, posted on YouTube, appears to show the officers pulling the man out of his wheelchair and pushing him to the ground. Blood oozes from his head as he lies facedown on the sidewalk.
The transit agency knew about the incident after it happened last week, but decided to take a second look on Monday after local news outlets showed the video, according to Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.
Transit Police Chief Michael Taborn “indicated he has some concerns about what he saw in the video,” Stessel said.
The incident occurred Thursday afternoon on U Street, near the Green/Yellow line station. The officers were patrolling the area when they saw the man in a wheelchair drinking alcohol on the sidewalk outside the station, Stessel said. They asked him to leave but he refused, Stessel said.
They tried to issue a citation for public drinking but the man refused again, he said. They told him he would be placed under arrest, but Stessel said the man resisted arrest “which resulted in a fall” from his motorized wheelchair.
The video, however, appears to show the officers tackling the man. All three end up on the ground. The man then lies handcuffed facedown on the sidewalk, blood pooling onto the concrete, as passersby question the police’s actions. His motorized wheelchair sits upright several feet behind him.
“He’s in a wheelchair!” a woman’s voice yells. “What is going on?”
Stessel said the video captures only part of what happened. “We don’t know what preceded the video,” he said.
The man was later taken to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries, Stessel said. He was charged with assaulting a police officer and drinking in public, he said.
Metro’s internal police investigation is expected to take seven to 10 days. The officers will remain on duty during that time, Stessel said. However, train and bus operators who are being investigated after an incident are taken out of service and put on administrative leave.
Metro has come under fire in recent months for not having more of a police presence inside its transit system. Several high-profile attacks on riders — which also were videotaped — prompted the agency to say it would step up patrols inside the stations and buses. Serious crime in Metro hit a six-year high in 2010.
